My mobile app says there are 99 days until the trip today, so to commemorate that I thought I would run you through what we're going to be doing in the lead up to the trip.
Today Ian Parkin will be taking a number of boxes to a place from where they will be shipped to Espiritu Santo, the largest island in Vanuatu, and from there, taken to Port Vila. We are piggy backing on another shipment to get our stuff over there. What are we sending? (you may ask) Well ...
- Computer Equipment including desktop machines, monitors, mice & keyboards. We'll be setting up a room at the Paama Seaside school which will be used to teach the children during the day, and the adults in the evening. We are hoping it will be a really useful room.
- Some equipment that will be used to paint the school inside and out. This is an activity we'll be doing in conjunction with the youth of Paama Seaside.
- Some gifts for the school children.
So, if you are inclined to pray, please pray that all off this stuff gets there before we do. That will be quite important. :-)
So, what else are we doing between now and then...
We are going to be doing some training in term 2 which will help us to understand differences between different cultures, and tips for travelling, and other things like that. I am also hoping to understand more about the strengths of each team member so we can know how to back each other up. The training is provided by UnitingWorld, and most of it is computer based training (online). I have done my fair share of CBT in my time, and most of it is about as exciting as eating cardboard. Hopefully this training is of the better variety. But in any case if it does suck we can always laugh about it with the team.
There is other paperwork that we need to get through too - like getting all of our passports ready, completing medical checks. Our Travel Insurance is being provided through UnitingWorld, so we need to jump through just a couple of hoops to make that happen.
Speaking of UnitingWorld... We are doing this trip as an "InSolidarity Trip" through them, sort of pioneers for such a type of trip. I prefer not to think of it as a mission trip, although sometimes that is the easiest word to say to explain it. In the Western culture we often fall into thinking that it's all about the 'stuff' we can provide - and don't get me wrong - we have stuff, and we should be sharing it, but it's a constant battle, in my head at least, to not make it all about the 'stuff'. The way I think of it is this:
Basically our primary purpose in heading over there is to build relationships, so all the 'stuff' is actually only secondary to or major goal. If we stuff up the secondary stuff though, I think we stuff up our primary purpose too. So we had better get it right.
On Monday the 2nd of April we are holding a fundraiser at Castle Hill McDonalds. From 6pm-8pm we will get a percentage of the money from all of the food sold at the counter (includes McCafe, but not the drive through). The money raised will go towards more of the activities we'll be doing over there - so things like visiting a museum, or going on a road trip to a school at the other end of the island. It should be a good night. Hope to see you there!
